China’s wind power generation exceeds 400 billion kwh for first time

By Ding Yiting, People’s Daily

China's wind power generation capacity exceeded 400 billion kilowatt-hours (kwh) for the first time last year, reaching 405.7 billion kwh, or 5.5 percent of the country’s total electricity output, according to National Energy Administration (NEA).

The figure is almost quadruple the amount produced by the Three Gorges Hydropower Station in the same year.

Meanwhile, China's photovoltaic power generation capacity reached 224.3 billion kwh, a year-on-year growth of 26.3 percent.

China’s wind and photovoltaic power generation witnessed continuous and stable progress in recent years. The country’s first pilot commercial wind farm in Yumen, northwest China’s Gansu province has been connected to the national grid and started power generation, bringing the country closer to a new era when clean energy can be connected to the national power grid at a low price.

At a wind farm in Pearl Bay, Nanpeng island of Yangjiang, Guangdong province, giant turbines are rotating in the wind, expanding the capacity of China’s offshore wind power generation, and northwest China’s Qinghai province has connected all of its poverty-alleviated villages with photovoltaic power.

China’s export of photovoltaic products reached $20.78 billion last year, marking a year-on-year growth of 29 percent and the second highest in history, introduced Wang Bohua, Vice Chairman of China Photovoltaic Industry Association.

Clean energy such as natural gas, hydropower, nuclear power and wind power accounted for 23.4 percent of China’s total energy consumption in 2019, 1.3 percentage points higher from a year ago, according to the Statistical Communiqué of the People's Republic of China on the 2019 National Economic and Social Development released on Feb. 28.

China’s Clean Energy Consumption Action Plan (2018–2020) has set a goal for the country to raise the utility rate of generated wind power to a world-class level of 95 percent, and that of photovoltaic energy higher than 95 percent in 2020.

Indeed, the goal had already been reached by China last year, a year earlier than scheduled. However, the consumption of clean energy can be further expanded, said Tao Ye, Deputy Director of the Center for Renewable Energy Development of Energy Research Institute of National Development and Reform Commission.

He suggested that the country keep improving the utility rate of wind and photovoltaic power by strengthening monitoring and early warning of the industry, improving relevant energy consumption mechanisms and reforming the electricity market.

As a matter of fact, in recent years, apart from the surging installed capacity and output of wind and photovoltaic power generation, the utility rate of clean energy in China is getting closer to the global average, with some indexes even exceeding it.

NEA officials noted that this year, China will ensure orderly development of wind and photovoltaic power generation, improve its managing policies, intensify competition and proactively promote commercial wind and photovoltaic power projects.

An employee of opto-electronics producer WG Tech (JiangXi) Co., Ltd. works in the company’s TFT-LCD cleaning workshop in an opto-electronics industrial park, National High-Tech Economic Development Zone of Xinyu, east China’s Jiangxi province, Feb. 19. (Photo by Zhao Chunliang, People’s Daily Online)